After Many Days
by patricia51
Summary: Thirty years after "All's Well That Ends" two retired US Marshals find themselves face to face again. Marshall/Mary.


After Many Days by patricia51

(Thirty years after "All's Well That Ends" two retired US Marshals find themselves face to face again.)

Marshall Mann paid the cashier and stuffed the receipt in his jacket pocket before picking up his tray. He took several steps to clear the way for the people behind him in line who might actually have already picked out a place to sit. That wouldn't be easy. The cafeteria located in the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building was packed. A wry smile touched his lips. What would the place be like at lunch hour instead of three in the afternoon? Must be a madhouse.

As he worked his way through the tables and booths he realized that it was even more crowded than he thought. Several times he spotted an open chair but found it filled by the time he got near. Pretty soon he was beginning to think he would have to eat standing up and holding the tray. And his meatloaf was getting cold.

Just when he had about resigned himself to balancing the tray with one hand and shoveling food with a fork in the other he saw a couple rise from what appeared to be a two person table hidden behind a stand holding condiments and drink pitchers. He hurried forward, conscious of another form approaching from his right. Using a sideways motion he pushed the dirty plates to one side and plopped his tray down,

An almost identical clatter told him the other person had performed a similar manuever. He stifled a groan. Not that he demanded a table to himself or even preferred to eat alone. It just was he really wasn't in the mood for the standard conversations that seemed to predominate in this building. He had already picked up snatches of talk from a half-dozen tables and he was bored with all of them already.

For a moment he considered keeping his head down and mumbling with a full mouth in response to any conversational attempt. But his normal good nature won out as he sat down. Pasting a polite smile on his face he looked across the table.

The first thing he saw was a mane of blonde hair with a touch of gray strands here and there. Then it was a pair of penetrating blue eyes that were examining him as closely as he was examining the owner of those eyes. Eyes that were alight with a growing amusement mingled with surprise.

The two table mates stared at each other for a moment. Then a never-to-be-forgotten cocky grin spread over the blonde's face.

"Well Marshall Mann. We have got to stop meeting like this."

The man couldn't help but chuckle. "As I live and breathe, if it isn't Mary Shannon."

"Well you obviously are doing both it seems. How are you Marshall? And what brings you to our nation's capital?"

Marshall's reply was interrupted by an obviously harried and over worked waitress who apologized as she danced around their table, picking up the previous occupants dishes and making a quick swipe at the table with a cleaning cloth. He shook his head as he watched her retreat, pausing to refill glasses at two other tables before disappearing into the kitchen area.

"Remind me to leave an extra large tip."

"Noted." Mary dug into her food, chewed and swallowed. "Now, you were saying? Are you here to visit your old office? Bet you never had to fight your way through this mad house back then Chief United States Marshal."

"It's now Director of the United States Marshal's Service."

"I like the old title better."

"Of course you do." Marshal smiled. Some things always remained the same and one of those was Mary's reluctance to accept change in any shape or form. "Actually I came to visit Fred."

"How is your oldest? And that makes him a what, sixth generation US Marshal doesn't it?"

"He's fine. He's with the Special Operations Group."

"Not WitSec?" Mary's eyes opened wide in pretended shock and she clutched her chest, which was still a rather impressive chest a clinical part of Marshall's mind reminded him before he shook such thoughts off.

"He'll settle down eventually. If he doesn't get tired of kicking in doors on his own eventually his wife Ali is going to start dropping hints especially as she is about to have child number three."

"Wow, three. Matched his father's count already."

"He started earlier," Marshall smiled.

"And Azalea and Seth?"

"Azalea is not too far south of here at Fort Bragg. She's still single and in no hurry to change that it seems."

"So she's still jumping out of perfectly good airplanes then," Mary stated rather than asked. She shook her head. "Must be something genetic."

"Could be. And Seth is just out of the Marine Corps and at FLETC for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. "

"So two out of three went straight."

"You could put it that way. So how's Nora? Oliver? And didn't you and Kenny have one yourselves?"

"James." Marshall nodded. "As it turned out James was Kenny's father's name as well as mine."

Mary launched into a surprisingly detailed account of her lawyer daughter working for the Justice Department and her family, her architect step-son and in a revelation that made Marshall raise his eyebrows and wonder aloud at coincidence, her son who was now a detective with the Albuquerque Police Department. She also brought her former partner up on what all had happened to Jinx and Brandi. There was a lot as she had remained in New Mexico when he had been promoted to Regional Chief and had moved to Denver. She even brought him up to date on Mark and his mother Principal Joanna Stuber who had continued to baby sit Nora and the others up till they were nearly in high school.

Sometime during their catching up they had managed to eat. Considering the jammed dining room was still standing room only they had decided to walk off lunch while they talked. Eventually they settled in on a bench under a tree on the mall.

"Oh, one bit of news that might have escaped you back in ABQ WitSec. Remember Ronnie Dalembert?"

Mary snorted. "Our favorite, and I use that word 'favorite' very loosely, con man? What about him? He get caught yet again and still wiggle his way out of it?"

"Yes and no." When Mary gave him one of her patented looks Marshall relented. "He got back into the phony bonds for phony churches routine. Apparently it was his favorite and since he was on the other side of the country from his last time he figured he be safe. As it turned out he wasn't. An elderly couple he hit on, well, the wife turned out to be the sister of his last pair of victims before he got caught the first time. Apparently the previously taken couple had three very large, very strong sons who dropped in to interview Ronnie when he thought he was going to be seeing the second elderly couple."

"Ouch."

"VERY ouch. It seems, and this is all third or fourth hand you understand, that Ronnie offered to refund the money he had taken the boys' parents for. But for some unknown reason they didn't believe him when he promised to be right back with it. So they tried to see if they could take forty thousand dollars out of his hide."

"Did they?" asked an interested Mary.

"I suppose it's a judgment call but they certainly tried. I understand that he lived on soup and other liquids for several months and his arms have healed well enough so that he has regained most of their use. His legs are another story but I've heard he might be out of the wheelchair someday. Part of the problem is that he's never had to actually work at anything and that includes physical therapy. He kept expecting that his luck would somehow come to his rescue and he wouldn't have to spend all that time working out."

"So what happened to the attackers?"

"Well Ronnie was in a bind. He had got caught the third time and it seems everyone he offered up to testify against had already been caught and put away or left the country. He also wasn't very excited to learn that he would have to show up and testify in any trials and that the defense attorney's could keep him recalled a lot. Not like that day in Albuquerque when it was just supposed to be a quick in and out. He knew how exposed he would be and he didn't care for that. Incidentally he demanded that you and I be brought in to cover him and was crushed to find out it wasn't going to happen. So in the end everyone rather tacitly agreed to let the whole incident fade away and Ronnie is, much to his chagrin, walking the straight and narrow."

"Sometimes the good guys win after all," Mary observed. "Or at least the bad guys lose which works for me as well."

"True. Speaking of good guys; how's Kenny?"

Mary shook her head and left her left hand to show it was bare of rings. "He was, IS, a good guy and we had a great run but after the kids were all grown and gone I guess empty nest got to us. The parting was amicable; believe it or not, we had just reached a point we didn't have anything left in common. We still stay in touch all the time and not just about the kids."

"I'm sorry. I liked him."

"So did I. And we're better as friends now." Mary shook her head and gave Marshall an old familiar look. "Speaking of kids how IS Little Miss Nancy Drew Teenaged Detective doing these days?"

One thing that had never changed was Mary's ability to read her partner's expressions. Before he could even frame a reply the smile vanished from her face in an instant. She whispered "Oh God no Marshall."

Freed from having to answer he nodded jerkily.

"I'm so sorry. How did it happen?"

The smile almost returned to Marshall's face as He thought of how he and his former partner still seemed to be able to communicate without words. But then he was sure that the look on his face as he had struggled to find the words to talk about the loss of his wife of well over twenty years might have given away to anyone that something was very wrong. No, he reconsidered that, definitely not like anyone else. Mary had gone right to the heart of the matter as always.

"Cancer. It was sudden and relentless. The doctors hit it with everything but none of it even slowed it down. From diagnosis to the end wasn't even six months."

If there was ever a woman who was NOT touchy-feely it was Mary but she covered his hand in hers, a gesture that was equivalent to most people throwing both arms around someone and hugging them for an hour or so. Nor had Marshall ever seen his former partner at such a loss for words. It was several minutes before she broke the silence.

"Marshall, I always teased you about Abigail, especially about her being younger than you. It took me a while and some pretty serious events in my own life, to actually mean it when I said I liked her. You know a lot of it was because I was jealous. Not THAT was," she hastily added. "You know what I mean. We talked about it, or rather talked around our feelings for each other that day out on the balcony at the office. You were always my best friend and I resented you spending time with her. Heck Marshall I would have resented any woman you had got serious with. I resented Shelly Finkle and there wasn't even anything there."

She paused for a moment. "But I meant what I said that day. I DID like Abigail. I liked her for herself and the fact that she didn't put up with crap from me. I like you two together. She made you happy and I realized that's what I wanted for you more than anything in the world. And I know that you were happy for what, twenty-five, twenty-six years or more and I'm sorry she's gone."

"Thanks Mary." He didn't say anything more than that and nothing else needed to be said.

The tableau was broken by a cell phone chiming. It belonged to Mary and she answered it. There was a brief conversation and she stood.

"I need to go," she said rather reluctantly. "I'm meeting Nora and her family for dinner and we have talked away the entire afternoon."

Marshall studied his watch. They had indeed. It was hours later than he thought. He stood as well.

"Marshall?"

"Hmm?"

"Why don't you join us? I'm sure Nora would love to see Uncle Marshall again after so long and you could meet her husband and kids."

"That would be great but I'm meeting Fred and his family as well so..." the words trailed off as the two former partners eyes met and the same thought flashed between them.

It took about ten minutes of frantic calling and Mary not taking no for an answer more than once for them to finalize their wordlessly agreed upon plans.

"Eight o'clock at Genanies then. All of us."

"Right. Meet you there."

The pair turned away from each other making their ways to where they had each parked. More than once Marshall or Mary would look back over a shoulder to see the other one looking at them.

Marshall smiled, a spring in his step that had been missing the last few years he had been alone. He was going to enjoy seeing his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. He was going to like seeing Nora again and her husband and kids. But most of all he was looking forward to the opportunity to spend more time with his old partner and best friend and... Whatever the future might hold.

(The End)


End file.
